Monday

June 5th

Gideon opened his refrigerator in his place and stared inside it, trying to determine what exactly he should make for breakfast on his stove. He didn’t mind the cool air hitting his bare skin or the water droplets that still clung to it from his recent shower. It may have been early morning, and it was already beginning to warm up. He reached in and grabbed the milk, opened it and started drinking out of it while he debated internally on whether or not to have toast or if he should try his hand at eggs and bacon. This could be an adventure. He wasn’t much on cooking. In the back of his mind, he idly thought about maybe he could begin to find a job today, or find out what he had to do to become a Colorado citizen in no particular order.

The lock on his door clicked.

What the hell? Gideon’s eyes narrowed and he brought the milk carton down and turned to face the door.

Savannah pushed the door open and closed it behind her. She leaned against the doorjamb and crossed her arms under her breasts, a key to his apartment dangled from her fingers. Gideon stared at her, his mind completely blank. She had let herself into his place without knocking or a by your leave.

And because her arms were under her breasts it gave him a clear view of the top of the vest she was wearing over a tank top. It looked something like Brands, stars on the collar corners, epaulets on the shoulders, a dagger pin, and one of her patches read President, but she couldn’t be President because Brand was. Then he saw the V. in front of it.

Short, cute, and tiny was Vice President of the Club. That was it. He wasn’t calling her cutie to her face, ever.

Gideon dragged his eyes upwards to look at her. She looked different. The fresh faced, no nonsense, no make-up look from the day before had been replaced with heavy black eye shadow applied almost like eyeliner around her eyes. Or it could have been eyeliner. He didn’t know enough about makeup to know the difference. There were other differences too but he couldn’t pin them down. He wasn’t informed about girl’s make-up choices.

She smiled at him. “Good morning, Prospect,” she said. Her eyes wandered downward and she bit her tongue. Gideon had a ring through one of his nipples. That was, in her opinion, completely and utterly cruel. Not only was he sexy as sexy could be, a nipple ring was adding icing to a pleasant cake. And she couldn’t indulge.

He dropped his eyes and they landed on her left arm. There was a faint and almost thread-like tattoo almost invisible against her pale skin around her upper arm. From what he could tell it was white and light purple flower with thin vines around her arm like a bracelet. He looked at her other arm. There was an edge of a tattoo there too that he couldn’t see and a pink bubbled up scar across the grain of the muscle.

It was about this point that Gideon remembered that the one thing between him and Savannah was his kitchen counter and he was stark naked.

She ignored his shock. “Do you know how to use a hammer?” she asked. Then she paused. “And not the one in your pants.” She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, smirking at him, her cheeks flushing slightly. “Or not pants.”

Gideon didn’t know what to make of the flush. “Yeah,” he said slowly.

Savannah nodded and grinned. “Good, the Clarks need their roof repaired. You might want to go down to the hardware store and get yourself a basic set of tools if you don’t have them already.” And Savannah didn’t think he did, but she could be wrong. She continued. “You’ll be needing them.”

She turned around, opened the door and looked over her shoulder at him, her hips cocked to one side. “And Prospect,” she said with a smirk, “don’t dilly dally.” She walked out the door and shut it behind her.

Gideon stared at his closed door. What in hell had happened there? She’d walked in, and gave him orders, and walked out like she owned the place. He slowly put his milk back into his fridge and shut it. He rested his forehead against the door and sighed. He took a deep breath, and smelled peaches and alcohol. He groaned. It had to be Savannah’s perfume. She smelled good enough to eat.

He’d better go get dressed, go buy some tools, and never ever tell Beda that she was right. He was going to have expenses, and tools could be expensive.

---

Frankie rolled up a pancake on her plate with one hand and juggled the Clarks’ baby boy, Clarence, on her hip with her other arm. Her father, Ted, and Lawrence ‘Outlaw’ Clark were talking in low voices, Outlaw’s rather strained as he tried to explain the situation. Frankie took a big bite of the pancake. Clara, Outlaw’s wife was indoors helping Esme with the food. She’d volunteered to entertain the baby. She had plenty of practice with six nieces and nephews. Besides, the baby was cute.

Savannah sauntered around the corner, snatched a few pieces of bacon out of the large pan on the table, munched them down, wiped her fingers on a napkin, and came over to Frankie. She wrinkled her nose at the baby, and reached out and tickled him under the chin. “Good morning, precious,” she cooed.

Clarence giggled.

Frankie’s eyes narrowed at Savannah. There was something different about her best friend today. Though Savannah hadn’t been at her best the last few days, things were settling back to normal and Frankie knew that Houston was taking over fixing the transport.

Frankie considered Savannah’s appearance. Hair. Spiked faux hawk. Check. Clothes. Kutte, tank top, cargo pants. Check. Jewelry. Savannah was wearing dangling earrings with the Club logo on them, that was a little unusual since it was a workday, but not too different. Make-up. Frankie’s eyes widened a little. She stuffed the rest of her pancake into her mouth, grabbed Savannah’s arm and started dragging her around the side of the house back towards the front.

Savannah yelped, stumbled and came along with her. “Frankie!”

Frankie looked around and, seeing no one was coming, she turned on Savannah. “Are you wearing eyeliner?”

Savannah shifted on her feet and refused to meet Frankie’s eyes. “Maybe, I felt like looking nice today.” She bit her lip. It was her first day as the prospect’s sponsor after all.

And it wasn’t like he was going to notice or anything. He wouldn’t know one way or the other. He wouldn’t care. Her eyes felt funny again, like she was going to cry. Why did she bother trying? She jumped to a conclusion that Frankie hadn’t said. “You’re right, it’s too much.” She reached up and started to wipe at it. “I’ll take it off.”

Frankie grabbed her hand. “Stop. You’ll smudge it.” Frankie paused. “You look great.” She let Savannah’s hand go.

Savannah dropped her hand. “I guess.”

Frankie bit her lip. Was this about Gideon? She glanced around again. There was no way she could let anyone overhear this. If Skyler found out, she’d pick on Savannah. And it might get back to Gideon too and Savannah would be embarrassed. “You didn’t really look at the prospect yesterday.”

“Yes, I did. Really, really quickly.” Savannah flushed. She’d gotten a better look this morning. “I do notice things,” she muttered, like the fact that the prospect was extremely sexy.

Frankie shifted the baby. See, this is why Skyler was too pushy. Savannah was embarrassed simply about being attracted to the guy. And in Frankie’s opinion, it was past time that Savannah was attracted to somebody. Oh, she was sure Savannah had been attracted to other guys in the past. She’d never acted on it. Frankie fished into her inside kutte pocket and pulled out lip-gloss. “Okay, hold still,” she said and worked it open with one hand.

“Frankie, I don’t need that. Isn’t that, he won’t notice,” Savannah finished.

Frankie brandished the wand and passed it over Savannah’s lips. “Hush. You shall have pretty, shiny lips.”

Savannah sighed and let her apply without any more protests. At least it was clear and not, say, a bright red.

Frankie leaned back. “There! Now you look greater than before,” she said with a grin.

Savannah rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Frankie.”

Frankie’s face softened. “He’ll notice, Savannah.”

“It’s not going to last past breakfast.”

“Then you can borrow more.” Frankie bounced the baby up and down. “Say, where is the prospect?”

“I don’t know, getting tools.” Savannah shrugged a shoulder. “He’ll be along.”

“Savannah!” Ted shouted from the back yard.

“I’m coming!” Savannah shouted back and with a smile at Frankie, jogged back around the house.

Frankie narrowed her eyes at Savannah’s back. Savannah was never ambivalent about her Club duties and Gideon was her latest responsibility. Savannah, in Frankie’s opinion, was up to something. Frankie looked at the baby. “Love makes us do strange things,” she said and kissed the baby’s forehead.

Clarence gurgled and patted Frankie’s face. Frankie giggled.

---

Gideon set the last of the tools he thought he was going to need on the counter. He didn’t know what Savannah exactly meant by a basic set of tools. Savannah was female. He wasn’t sure if Savannah knew what a basic set of tools actually was. However, he’d gotten what he figured he’d need for any roofing, plumbing, or basic whatever have you repair job: hammers, screw drivers, drills, wrenches, and whatever couldn’t be taken out of the toolbox in his trunk. It never hurt to have doubles, and Savannah made this sound, in the short phrases she had used, like he was going to be doing a lot of repair work. Most of the tools in his trunk were for his auto anyways.

The old man behind the counter looked over his glasses at the tools and looked up at him, noted the vest, and started scanning them. “Looks like you have a big job ahead of you,” he said.

Gideon felt his chest thump and he felt a little lost. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was supposed to go after here, but maybe this old man could help him. “The Clarks need their roof repaired and I guess I’ve been asked to help.” Asked was a polite way to put it.

The old man half smiled. “Now, would that be the old Clarks or the new Clarks.”

Gideon’s heart raced. “I don’t know.”

“Now, the old Clarks have a big older house out near St. Nicholas, but the new Clarks bought themselves one of those newer places near the high school before their baby was born.” The old man tilted his head.

Gideon shook his head. “Sorry, I’m new in town. I really don’t know.”

“Hmph, Jael was down here quoting material. And the new Clarks aren’t that well off, with them having the baby and buying a house and all, I’m thinking those are who you’d be looking for.” The old man finished scanning the items.

Gideon bit his lip and kept his eyes on the counter. Damn, Savannah. “Maybe?”

“You haven’t a clue, sonny, do you?”

“No.”

“You got any coupons?”

“No.”

The old man grinned. “How long have you been wearing that kutte?”

Gideon looked confused.

The old man gestured at his chest. “That vest, it’s called a kutte.”

“Oh.” Gideon had to count on his fingers. Thursday night didn’t really count as a day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, though two of those he’d technically been running around in armor. “Three days?”

“Right. You haven’t received the newsletter yet. That’s fine. I’ve got the code right here,” he muttered and puttered around, and entered a code in manually. The machine beeped. He reached under the counter and put two pieces of paper on the counter. “Now this code,” he pushed one over, “is free and is the Jasper phone book. And this,” he tapped a finger on the other, “is a map of the town.”

Gideon wanted to sag against the counter in relief. “That’d be great. Thank you. I’ll take it.”

The old man scanned the paper. “Enter those codes into your computer while connected to the ‘net’ and you’ll be able to download those two programs,” he said and finished punching buttons.

Gideon nodded. He pulled out his wallet and started counting bills. “I will.”

“And to be getting to the new Clarks, you’ll go out the shop, take a right, go two intersections, take a left, go four intersections, and take another right, and they’ll be three houses down on the left. Or, you can try cross referencing the phone book and the map and see how long it takes you.”

Gideon kept his eyes on the counter and grinned. “I’ll try your directions first.”

“You want our club card? If you’re going to here awhile, it might come in handy.”

Gideon swallowed. “Sure.”

The old man pulled out a thin metal strip and flicked it. “It’s a mark system, my pen connected to the computer here marks off how much you’ve spent towards getting your reward,” he said. He glanced at the screen and marked off what Gideon had purchased. “When you’ve spent as much on the card, you’ll get what it says, and then I’ll give you a new one.” He pushed the card over. Gideon picked it up and glanced at it.

“Right. Thanks,” he said. He flicked the edges of the card. It returned to being a small metal strip and Gideon slipped it into his wallet.

“You’re welcome, sonny. Come again.”

Gideon smiled at him, nodded, grabbed his things, and left. He found his auto and put his things in the trunk, shut it, and decided to try the old man’s directions before going after the map. He went past the shop, took the right, went two intersections, took the left, went four more intersections, took another right and drove past the third house on the right. The street in front of it and the driveway were full of vehicles. There wasn’t any parking in front of it

He parked a few houses down. The old man had been correct. Or at least, Gideon hoped he was correct. He did recognize the girl in the front yard holding a chubby baby. He went around back, picked up his new tools, and shut the trunk.

“Gideon!” Frankie bounced up and down and waved at him. “Good, you’re here!” she said. Her arms were covered in bright colorful tattoos that looked like sleeves.

Gideon glanced upwards. Savannah stood on the roof, her head tilted to one side. There were a few other people up there with her. He walked over to Frankie and smiled at her. “Yeah, I made it,” he said.

No thanks to Savannah, he thought and somehow managed to keep the sarcastic remark behind his teeth. He’d had plenty of practice in the military. A closer look at Frankie’s arms revealed the motifs were feminine in nature, flowers, butterflies, cranes, and a sinuous dragon all in Asian designs and pretty, what he considered more female, colors.

Frankie wrinkled her nose. “Did Savannah roll you out of bed?” she asked.

He wouldn’t call it that at all. “Not precisely.”

“Have you had breakfast?” Frankie asked.

Gideon stomach rumbled and he bit his lip. “Um, no.” The milk was wearing off.

Her eyes widened and she furrowed her brow, then looked up at Savannah. Savannah was no longer paying any attention. Frankie sighed. Yep. Savannah was up to something. She turned around. “You go around back and get breakfast. We haven’t started yet.”

Gideon bit his tongue. Then why was he here early? “Thanks Frankie,” he muttered.

Frankie shook her head and waved him away. Then she picked up the baby’s hand and waved him away.

Gideon grinned and headed around the house. He smelled the food before he saw it. His stomach and the rest of him perked up. It smelled like bacon and eggs, and the sweet burnt smell of maple syrup. He turned the corner. On a long table were pans upon metal pans piled with pancakes and eggs, bacon and sausage, toast triangles. His mouth watered.

Esme saw him. “Gideon!” she said and bustled over. “You look hungry.”

“I do?” Gideon asked.

“Boys always look hungry. Put those down and make up a plate,” she said. Gideon set his tools down in an empty spot. Esme nodded. “Good. Now that you’re here, maybe I can get Savannah to eat something more than a few pieces of bacon.” She grabbed his arm, walked him over to the table and handed him a plate. “Here.”

Gideon raised an eyebrow, and then he shrugged, and started to load his plate with pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon, delicious, delicious bacon. Esme picked up another plate and walked to the other side of the table and out of the corner of his eye, Gideon watched. Esme picked up two slices of toast, buttered them then loaded them with brown gravy and then picked up two more slices of toast, loaded them liberally with butter and set them off to the other side. She picked up more bacon and then put four fried eggs on the plate.

She came around the table before Gideon could get to the coffee. “I’ll trade you. Take this up to Savannah and I’ll hand your plate and the drinks up to you.” She paused. “How do you take your coffee?”

“Black,” Gideon said. He took Savannah’s plate and watched with pained eyes as Esme took his. He sighed and turned around, finding the ladder up to the roof. He went up the ladder one handed. Savannah came over to the edge and her eyebrow rose. Gideon held the plate out to her. “Esme sends this,” he said. The wind blew her scent to him—peaches. The peaches scent had been her this morning.

Savannah looked at the plate. She rolled her eyes skyward and took it. “I was going to eat,” she muttered. “Thank you, Prospect,” she said.

Gideon nodded, then paused. Had her lips been shiny this morning? His brow furrowed. He didn’t think they’d been. He stared at them a few more seconds, gave up, and glanced about the roof.

“It smells rotten,” Ted said and poked at the roof with a pocketknife. “Underneath like.”

Gideon turned around. Esme held up his plate and two sets of silverware rolled in napkins.

“Sit on the edge,” she said and turned away.

Gideon sat on the edge and put his plate in his lap. He held up one of the rolls of silverware. “Silverware?” he asked.

Savannah tugged it out of his fingers.

Esme came back and climbed a few rungs of the ladder. “This is for Savannah.”

Gideon sniffed. It smelled like chocolate. He set his silverware down and grabbed it. He held it up. “For you,” he said.

Savannah set her silverware on her plate and took the cocoa. “Please,” she murmured. She turned around.

Gideon finally got a good look at her right arm and the other tattoo. Above the pinkish bubbled up scar was a weeping yellow crescent moon with closed eyes with light purple eye shadow. He knew it was a female due to the magenta lipstick. The moon had white angel wings. The wings cupped a white and pale purple star with a spiral pattern in it. He turned back to his food and pondered the meaning of it. He didn’t come to any conclusions and decided eating was more important.

“I had it inspected,” Outlaw said and ran his fingers through his hair.

“We aren’t faulting you,” Savannah said gently. She glanced over at Gideon. He was listening but seemed more preoccupied with his breakfast. She tried to juggle both her plate and her cup, gave up and sat down, crossing her legs and putting her plate on her lap. “Quinn?

Quinn walked down the roof, looking left and right. “It probably spread from the original spot.”

“We haven’t owned it more than a year.” Outlaw put his face in his hands. “The inspector didn’t say a thing about the roof. Neither did the previous owners.”

“Course not,” Savannah shook her head. “They wanted it sold.”

“Whole thing needs to come off. I wouldn’t trust it as it is,” Quinn said.

Savannah looked at Ted.

Ted started muttering and looked over at Spike. “New roofing material by the square footage, wood, better check the insulation, nails, flashing.” He raised an eyebrow.

Spike started calculating. She rattled off a sum.

Outlaw blanched.

Ted looked at Savannah. Savannah tilted her head and dipped a triangle of her toast in her egg yolks. “The Club will work for free,” she said. “You’ll pay us back cost of materials.”

The young man’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Thank you, Savannah,” he said.

“Hey, keep your head up and look after your wife and baby,” Savannah said.

Gideon paused in his eating and looked over.

“If the roof is coming off, we’ll need a container for the trash,” Spike said. “I’ll go get one ordered.” She walked past Gideon, nudged him with her boot, and then turned around and clambered down the ladder.

Ted got up and grimaced. He walked over to the edge of the roof. “Clara! You got any coffee cans, metal ones, not those shit plastic ones. We don’t want anyone stepping on the nails.”

“One or two,” Clara said.

Frankie passed her the baby back to Clara. “I saw some in the recycling at the Club, daddy. I’ll run over and get them.”

Gideon about dropped his fork. Daddy? Gideon looked up. The big man was Frankie’s father and she called him Daddy? He looked back down and intently kept his eyes on his food. Ted was big and Frankie was tiny compared to him. Then he remembered that Morgan was Frankie’s sister and that this was the man who refused to get in between their fights. Gideon’s lips twitched.

“Bring back the Club van!” Savannah shouted after her.

“Will do!” Frankie shouted back.

“That van better be full of workers when she comes back,” Savannah muttered.

“Ahh, they won’t want to miss Esme and Clara’s fine home cookin’,” Ted said and slapped his hands on his pants. “We’re all good here.”

Outlaw stood up. “I have to get to work.” He didn’t sound like he wanted to go.

“Clara will keep a strict eye on us and if she doesn’t, the baby will,” Ted said.

Savannah swallowed a bite of food and smirked upwards at Outlaw. “Maybe you better take Clarence to work, do manly bonding so all the boys coming won’t be distracted.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow. “And you girls won’t be?”

Savannah smirked. “We can keep our minds on two things at once.”

Ted snorted. “Start arguing with her if you think you’ve got time for it,” he said to Quinn.

Quinn scowled and went down the ladder. Savannah stuck her tongue out at his back. He went over to his truck and started unloading more ladders. Outlaw followed him. The two talked by Quinn’s truck for a few minutes before Outlaw mounted a motorcycle and took off.

“He spend the weekend with Lindsey?” Ted asked in a low voice, meaning Quinn.

“Probably,” Savannah said.

“He gets more lippy after spending the weekend with her.” Ted rubbed his chin and stubble rasped under his fingers.

“Grandfather’s decided to put him on a leash,” Savannah said softly. “Maybe we’ll make a decent young man out of him yet.”

Gideon paused with his fork in midair, and turned and raised an eyebrow at the two of them. They did remember they were all members of a biker club, right?

Ted clapped his hands and guffawed. “Decent young man,” he chuckled.

“Or at least more responsible.” Savannah shrugged a shoulder.

“He pays his bills and he hasn’t been in jail.”

“So far and yet,” Savannah pointed out, “Josiah and Poker have talked to him and it has done no good. He’s more likely to pat Ash on the head than listen to her.”

“He’d pat Frankie on the head too.”

“Frankie would knock him out for the presumption.” Savannah took a sip of cocoa. “I can’t say that about Ash.”

Ted frowned. “She would.”

“You think so?” Savannah sounded skeptical.

“I was talking about Frankie.”

“Yes, Frankie is more than capable of setting Quinn on his ass for daring to pat her head.” Savannah nodded.

Ted grinned. “That’s my girl.”

“She certainly didn’t get it from Hazel,” Savannah muttered. She glanced over at Gideon. “If you want seconds, Prospect, you better get moving before the rest get here and devour it all.”

Ted stretched. “Seconds sounds excellent to me,” he said and headed over towards the ladder. He walked down it without turning around and jumped off a few rungs off the ground.

Spike climbed up and poked her head over the edge of the roof. “Garbage company says they’ll have a container here in under an hour.” She climbed up the rest of the way.

“Good. Everyone will have time for breakfast.” Savannah nodded.

Spike sat down next to her and lay down. Gideon finished his plate, debated seconds and decided it wouldn’t hurt. He edged over to the ladder and went down. He had tools to sort out too. He filled his plate again and went over by his stuff, sat down, and started going through it all.